The need is known to manage and verify the use and the replacement of electric batteries on vehicles.
In particular, with reference to electric vehicles or so-called “hybrid” vehicles, batteries of modular type are known which, once exhausted, can be quickly changed with other already-charged batteries by appointed personnel, at a service station, at vehicle dealers or in other suitably equipped places.
This permits avoiding long vehicle down times for all the time normally required to complete battery recharging.
Consequently, the need is felt to implement new methods of management of the batteries used, e.g. through forms of free loan, and to implement new instruments that allow verifying and monitoring the actual use of the batteries themselves over time.
As is known, in fact, the free loan of goods in general envisages the use of appointed personnel with the specific duty of carrying out all the necessary preliminary checks before the goods are collected or delivered.
Generally speaking, several goods delivery or return points are dotted over an area and, in each of such points, the appointed personnel carries out all the necessary activities, such as, e.g., the compilation of the free loan requests by users, the assignment of the goods to the users, the checking of the identity of the users and of how long the goods are used, the authorization to collect and to deliver the goods.
The use of personnel for most of the operations therefore slows down and makes the goods delivery and collection procedures more complicated.
In case of the free loan of the batteries, on the other hand, it is of fundamental importance to speed up and simplify the collection procedures involving an exhausted battery and the delivery of a charged battery, so as to provide a service that is usable in the short term.
Both in the case of free loan and in other use situations, furthermore, the need is felt to conceive and implement new instruments that allow detecting the theft of the battery only, of the vehicle or, in any case, the unauthorised use of the battery itself.
In fact, the considerable cost of the batteries, in particular the cost of the batteries used on electrically-propelled vehicles, makes advisable the use of dedicated deterrent or anti-theft systems.
The document US 2004/239502 A1 discloses a storage battery that includes a burglary prevention device. Particularly, the burglary prevention device comprises a burglary sensor for detecting a burglar and a burglary prevention signal output unit.
However, also this known storage battery could be improved in order to obtain an enhanced detection of anomalous situations such as the theft of the vehicle or the unauthorised use of the battery.